This is from my brother-in-law who was a former marine.
Dear all,
Just a few lines about all the recent e-mails we\'ve received. I know how easy it is to join the collective thought process out there in cyber space but I just can\'t let certain issues go. I appreciate all of your opinions but I don\'t agree with all of them. It\'s very easy to hide behind our keyboards.
Recent events have been weighing heavy on me and I have been trying to search within on how to assess this war in which we waged.
As you ,I am an American by birthright but I also helped earn part of my rights by serving my country in the United States Marine Corps. This does not make me or anyone else who served any more of an American than others who didn\'t .
As a former service member I often asked myself, was this war a cause for which I was willing to give my life? I think this a question we all should have asked ourselves at one point or another. To ask our service men and women to pay the ultimate sacrifice, because we called upon them, is a heavy responsibility.
This is a sacrifice they put upon themselves, as I had, when they took the oath to enlist.
I do not envy the President. I do support him during these changed times.
I would like to take this opportunity to address some of the e-mails I have received.
To those of you who think that this War is cool ,neat, entertaining, humorous or just another reality T.V. show,I take personal offense.
PEOPLE ARE DYING. American service people and innocent Iraqi\'s are paying a heavy price for your "entertainment".
Our troops are going to have to live with the images of this war for the rest of their lives, and it will haunt them. I do not envy the things they will see. To have to kill women and children, to engage an enemy whose being forced to fight you, not because they hate you, but because the enemy is threatening their families lives. Is this a situation you would put yourself in?
After seeing and hearing these atrocities, I now believe this is a good cause. I would be proud to serve again to help these people to be free.
I support our troops and I know most of you do also, but I ask you to honor them and the Iraqi people by not exploiting them.
On another note,
Do not ask Me to boycott anything from another country because they exercised their rights to express themselves. This is ignorant, and against the values of our great nation. This is one right our troops volunteered to defend.
Unless you are 100% Native American, stop telling me that we should close our borders to immigrants. This is the great American Melting pot. LET\'S MELT. We have a Bill of Rights that applies to all who come to this great land.
Let\'s give immigrants the chance our great-great grandparents had for the opportunities to better themselves.
I have strong feelings about our nation. I have been to many other countries and know there is no better place than the good ol\' U.S.A. I am Proud to say I served to help protect the freedoms that so many take for granted. The men and women who serve today are trying to preserve our way of life and the lives of others and I hope that someday they succeed.
Please Honor Them.
" War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things in this world. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic attitudes that implies that nothing is worth defending, is much worse! A person who has nothing for which he is willing to defend... nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety... is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
This came from a recruiting poster, and is the reason I joined the Marines. Thank you for hearing me out. I am sending this to everyone on my list, please don\'t take what I said personally. If you do, than that is your right.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
SEMPER FI,
Brian Patalon
